Days gone by....

Johnny finally managed to get 'round to digging out a few old snaps of his Pan. He bought the engine off of Freddie Warr back in 73 or 74, sold his two year old Combat Commando to sponsor the build. Back in the day, the only adverts in the Harley section of the Motorcycle News was the one for F H Warr of Kings Road Chelsea and occasionally an ex-military 45 would crop up. Big Twins were certainly few and far between in Blighty back then. The motor itself was shipped in from South Africa and reportedly came from an old police bike. The scarcity of H-D parts explains the strange mixture of other parts used in the bike. The frame is a heavily modified 45, whilst the gearbox, clutch and primary case is all Triumph Thunderbird.

This picture shows the bike as first built and registered in 1975, slightly over stock custom springers, sporting the period twin square spotlights. To modern eye it looks a little crabby, but back then it was a chopper man, and better still it was a Harley chop.

When it was sold in '98 it morphed into this, gaining a set of Yam XS650 wheels and some extra rake in the neck. The other changes are pretty evident and it ended up a nice looking bike that would still cut it today.
As a point of interest, the Trumpet gearbox and clutch handled the power without complaint for all those years.

This here is Geoff, still about but deals more in the resto side of the game now, still a Triumph man though. I think that Geoff built the first real chopper I ever saw, a rigid A7 with extended girders and moulded tank. When we were about 17 he had a god like status around here, as can be seen by the well versed posing displayed above.

Intriguing

Got this through by phone a while ago, Plan B can't wait to get a better look.

New Tee arrived this morning

One of these arrived from Her Majesty's Thunder in North Carolina this morning. Should cause a few grins around the bike do's this Summer. May piss a few people off, but hey ho, it's not a life threatening problem to 'em

Exponential weight loss

Chatted to the man about having another crack at the rear light yesterday. A bit of measuring revealed that the one he has made has a diameter of 89.5 mm where the light unit fixes, whereas the O.D. of the light unit rubber is 72mm. That's a reduction of 20%, I have told him to reduce all dimensions by the same 20%, this will virtually halve the weight before he starts boring out the inside.

That sounds a bit odd but the way I figure it is this;
A block of material that measures 10cm x 10cm x 10 cm is 1000 cubic centimetres.
Reduce the dimensions by 20% to give 8 x 8 x 8, this results in 512 cubic centimetres.
so that will be a major step forward in ending up with a usable piece

A seat in a non-election stylee

Got the seat back from the powder coaters yesterday, looks alright, although I should have concentrated on the finish on the inside of the rails rather than the outside. The inside of the rails is what people will see if they look up under the seat. The bright nickel plating on the springs and front nose piece has come out well and contrasts really nicely against the black.

It is a little difficult to see the effect on these pictures but it looks pretty darn reasonable to me. Of course all of this will be hidden under the seat cover, unless it is viewed from below. Maybe someone else will see it and appreciate the detail, maybe not, but hey ho I like it. Also got the right angled mounting plates blacked at the same time, again they are looking reasonable, Shan't bother with a picture as they look the same as before, only black.

I've got to be really careful with the powder coating option as it's too easy to put on, but a bugger to get off. It's OK for small ancillary bits that will probably stay black for a while to come, but for the frame, wheel hubs and the like I feel wet paint is the more flexible option as it easier to remove if required.

I ran the base down to the upholsterers this afternoon, and have chosen to go the cream leather pleated route. I may regret this when it's done, time will tell. The guy said two to three weeks, he's really stacked with work. Bike seats, car interiors and even a bit of furniture to do. More waiting to be done then.

And still it seems to be on the up.......

As promised, here's a couple of shots of the rear light housing, all 2.4 kg of it. In the first picture it is clear that the shape, in my opinion, is absolutely superb, probably better than what I had in mind before I ventured out on this misadventure. Other than it being some 10 mm too large in diameter it is spot on.

This picture shows where most of those unwanted kilos are hiding, what is not hole is solid steel. I was originally going to fit a lamp either side, two of these muthas and I would have had a wheelying monster from Hell. Yer man obviously did not grasp what it was for.
The bloke who made it came in today, his wife dropped it off on Wednesday (strong woman) so it was the first opportunity to speak to him about it. When he asked if it was OK, I had to tell him that it wasn't quite what I had in mind. I did take responsibility for the cock up though, as I had not checked the drawing before handing it over, lesson learnt for the umpteenth time. All credit to him though, he said that he would have another go and will bring the drawing over tomorrow so we can go over it and discuss in some detail what I actually do want. I think that I should go with it as the shape is truly custom and it will look ace if and when it's right. May even get a few more knocked up and post 'em for sale.
Having said that, plan B will still be continued as the time factor may well become an issue again.

A little light at the end.......

Following yesterday's hole of misery and bitchin' there was a little a brightness starting to creep in today.
For starters, and to give you some idea of my problems with the "custom" made housing, I weighed it today as promised, and, get ready for this, it goes 2.4 kg !!!! I shit you not, that's about 5 lbs for all you non metricated brothers out there. Now I know what you're thinking, how can a light housing weigh that much ? Well when it's virtually a solid block of steel it bloody well can. I'll get a picture of it just to show the sheer bulk and presence of it.



These pictures are the start of what might go on instead. The housing is a Sportster indicator shell, which is only just deep enough to contain the bulb holder. As you can imagine I ain't particularly happy with the step between the housing and the lamp unit. Fitting a turned ring of between 10 and 12mm between the two halves with a radius to marry and merge the two diameters is the thought at the moment. Should look OK in Bitchin' Black and not to obvious, just have to try it I guess.

All hopes dashed

What a pisser !!!!!
A couple of posts ago I told you that I was eagerly anticipating the imminent arrival of the rear light shell. Well it turned up this morning, I grabbed it out of the box it was in and my heart sank, even before I saw it, it weighs loads, at least a kilo ! I may weigh it tomorrow just as a matter of interest. The bloke has not scalloped it out as thin as he could like I asked him, instead there's an inch hole down the centre. On top of this it's about 10mm too big in diameter, so all in all it's 'king useless. The actual shape and finish is spot on, which makes it worse.
The problem I suppose is dealing with people who are not into bikes themselves and therefore don't really understand the use and purpose of what they are being asked to make.
The other thing that got my goat, was that I did not have a back up plan in place for this eventuality, so things are now pretty much where they were several months ago.
One chink of light in the darkness, is that I have a set of Harley indicators in the shed which are 3" diameter, one of these may be OK but it'll mean going down that old compromise alley once again.
I may keep it as a paperweight to remind me to be a bit more specific in my requests.

Two Face back out and about

I posted some really moody black and white pics of Indi's Scout, known as Two Face, these two pictures show how and why the name came about. This bike really sums up shed built bike building, a man carving his own path, building it the way he sees it, and not a catalogue part in site.

In time for the new season

Scarlett over at Dirty Bobbers has just released a great range of Tees in Bob's Shop. Great old names like Bates, Flanders .... well you can pop over and take a look. Not only will they make you look cool this summer, at the price of a tenner there will be change left over for a brew. (Edit) Ooops, change of plan gang, Scarlett messed up when she loaded the advert, there should have been a price hike, that's now in place. So you'll only be able to get a half with ya change. To make it up to you all, I've put the banner and link across the top of here to save any grief.

The future has arrived

These sweet looking Fishtails have just become available from Feked at 22" (550 mm) long with an inch and three quarter inlet, they are a very reasonable £39:95 plus tax. Probably 50 quid by the time it's in your hand. Gettem while they're hot folks and be the envy of all your chums this summer.

The Bullet bug still nagging away

Ever since I posted about Bobbin' the Bullet a couple of weeks ago using the Hitchcock's hard tail conversion, I can't stop thinking about doing it. I can't really use the Madras Marauder as that means I would have to buy a daily rider to use, and that's not what I'm after.
I would like to get another 500 Bullet to convert, and rather than get something in a project status, I'd rather it be up and running. So, if anybody out there has, or knows where I can get, a decent 500 Bullet for a reasonable price please drop me a line.